


Conversations With Waking People

by displayheartcode



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: M/M, Pre-Relationship, puns
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-08
Updated: 2015-03-08
Packaged: 2018-03-16 21:02:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,031
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3502640
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/displayheartcode/pseuds/displayheartcode
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nico's half-dead and still doesn't like mornings. </p><p>Sequel to The Early Bird Catches the Zombie Worm.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Conversations With Waking People

**Author's Note:**

> Blame Parks and Rec and Buffy for this. 
> 
> Not edited because I have a paper to worry about.

“I’m dead,” Nico decided as he stared morosely at the ceiling. The embedded sea glass flickered with the early sunlight, almost reminding him how Will’s eyes… No, he shouldn’t go there. The aching leg muscles agreed that thinking of Will Solace was a bad idea. “Hey, Percy?” Nico flopped his head to the side and saw his friend nodding off. “Come on, I’m in pain.” 

“Whatever,” Percy mumbled. His sea green eyes appeared like slits as his head rocked back and forth. Much to Nico’s satisfaction, Percy’s head took a slight dip and thumped loudly on the bedpost. Now awake and in pain, his friend cursed and rubbed the bruise on his forehead. “It’s six in the morning, bro. What’s the point of waking me up?”

“Because someone has to be at my funeral.” Nico tried to sit up on the blue (like the sea and everything else in the cabin) couch, but found that he couldn’t. He raised his arms out in front of him, and attempted to sit up again. “Help.” He tried a third but gravity was working. Maybe he should listen to the aches and flop back down like a fish (or a corpse, he wasn’t picky)? 

“Why are you even up?” Percy asked in between yawns. He shuffled out of his bed and helped Nico into an upright position. Once that herculean effort was done, he sat down next to the demigod. “You don’t _like_ mornings.”

Nico leaned his head back and stared at the ceiling again. “Um.” He could feel his face becoming heated. “I…uh…went running.” He spared Percy a quick look, but jumped instead when his friend started laughing. 

“You? You eat McDonalds, like, five times a week and you avoid sunlight like some vampire and…and…” Percy blinked a few times and looked at Nico with less sleep-clouded eyes. He wrinkled his nose. “You _reek_. Oh my gods, _you_ went _running!_ _”_   Percy said the exercise as if it was Medusa’s head. He moved uncomfortably close into Nico’s personal space. “What’s wrong with you? Are you dying?” 

Nico worked a muscle in his jaw, trying to imitate the cheer that was in Will’s voice an hour before. “Come on, Nico! A little run isn’t going to kill you!” He snorted, the mild disdain making him feel more awake. “Can you believe him? He woke me up at some ungodly hour and asked if I wanted to go _running_ with him? He kept saying stuff about ‘sunrise’ and how stretching was good before he bolted, and he doesn’t know when to slow down, and now I hurt everywhere—“

“Nico,” interrupted Percy. “You said _yes._ You said yes to a guythat almost made a dryad lose last summer. What the Hades were you even thinking?”

Nico became quiet. He thought back to not much earlier that morning, to opening his door to see Will pink-faced and with his thin shirt clinging to him with sweat. Or how his legs looked once he got a good rhythm in a jog. Or the light-headedness that was most likely dehydration, but maybe a little with how Will looked as the sun rose. Then to everything that had lead to Nico breaking and entering into Percy’s cabin because it was nearby and had a comfortable couch to sleep on. “Oh,” he said after a while. 

_Meanwhile_ _…_

“You did what?”

Will’s lanky arms whipped in the air, moving almost like a language of their own. “He said yes, what was I supposed to do? I panicked and—he hates me now, doesn’t he?” His fingers worriedly knotted themselves in his hair.

Lou Ellen groaned into her hands.

“I was running by and thought why not? I could check to see how he was feeling after being in the infirmary, and it’s _fun_ to run with someone…But he wasn’t having fun. I am a horrible healer, but why? Why did I even think of asking him? He has to hate me now.”

More annoyed about the interruption in her beauty sleep, Lou Ellen opened her mouth but was steamrolled by the verbal freight train. 

“I would have asked you,” Will said, unaware of the discontent that colored the daughter of Hecate’s face. “But you don’t like running with me anymore, and Nico was right down the pathway. I don’t even think he _likes_ running. Great, now I’ve ruined his sleep and brought him pain. I am literally the worst—“ 

His mouth suddenly vanished in a puff of green smoke. 

Lou Ellen crooked a finger, her eyebrows bunched together into a ‘V’ as she frowned. “Listen here, Sunshine. I put up with your rambling at six in the freaking morning because I care. Now I’m going to give you back your mouth, and I’ll give you a piece of advice along with it: Ask him to the fireworks. Nod once if you understand me.” 

Will nodded.

“Good.” She twitched her finger and Will gasped for breath. “What are you waiting for, Solace?”

“He’s probably asleep.” Will patted his lips to be sure if they were still there. “Maybe dreaming about throttling me with a zombie.”

“One question,” Lou Ellen said. “You never made any puns during this run, right? You didn’t try to stop any weird tension with your sad jokes?” 

_Meanwhile_ _…_

Percy shook his head, sighing sadly. “Unbelievable.”

“I know,” said Nico. “And I still don’t get it. What’s funny about skeletons eating spare ribs at a restaurant? They don’t even have stomachs…dammit!” He smacked his forehead. 

“Not that,” Percy said. “Well, I can’t stomach that pun, but I can’t believe you have a new crush. Now, I know I’m not your type, but at least this guys tries to raise your spirits. Nico?” 

Nico’s eye twitched.

“You look a little annoyed there.”

Nico stood up, wobbling on uncertain legs. “I am so glad that I’m over you. Good night, Percy. And don’t bother speaking to me for the rest of the day. I’ll be sleeping.” 

“Come back! I still want to say that you’re in _morning_. Get it, Nico? It's okay if you want to talk about your feelings with me. Nico?”

He slammed the door shut.


End file.
